جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 50

POV: ELARAThey come back when the night is thick and quiet, Varek and Kael, and I know before I even see their faces. I feel it first. The air shifts. It tightens. Like the forest itself stiffens its spine.Something must have happened between them.Something bad.Kael steps out first from the trees on my left. Varek comes from the right. Not together. Never together. Both of them look wrong. Clothes torn. Dirt on their skin. Blood that isn’t fresh but isn’t old either. Not bad wounds, but enough. Enough to tell me everything without a single word.They fought.“Men,” I grumble to my wolf.“Humans, more likely,” my wolf replies.“Hey! I'm human!”“You are tolerable.”“Asshole.”“Human,” she replies like it is an insult, which to her, it most definitely is.Arin presses closer to my side as he watches them and I feel his fingers curl into my sleeve, small but tight. His breathing changes. Shorter. Faster. He feels it too.I don’t move at first. I just stand there between them, because

POV: VAREKI wake before the sun, as usual, and the city smells different at this hour. Damp brick, smoke from the fires still smoldering, the faint tang of iron and sweat from the rogues already moving about. Emano is quiet now, but that quiet is alive. It isn’t empty; it’s full of eyes, of ears, of things that move and watch, but do not touch, and I like that. I like how it feels like the city itself bends to protect her and Arin without even knowing it.I step into the yard. The rogues are already lining up for drills, mats spread across broken concrete, weights and bars scavenged and cleaned, ropes hanging from beams that used to hold windows, benches made from crates, old furniture patched together. We run them hard, but not cruelly. Every instruction is met with obedience because they know I will not punish beyond reason, and they know I am always watching. Discipline without cruelty. Strength without chaos. I take a deep breath, the smoke curling in the morning air, and watch a

POV: KAELI wake up to laughter. Loud, bright, sharp enough to cut through sleep. It echoes across the stone courtyard and for a second I don’t know where I am. Then it clicks. Arin. Of course it’s Arin. He’s running full speed across the wet stones, arms everywhere, chasing a younger kid who’s laughing just as hard. No fear. No caution. Just sound and movement and life. I sit up slowly, body stiff and sore, and listen to it. That laugh hits me right in the chest. A reminder I didn’t ask for. Life doesn’t wait. It never does.The air smells like smoke from breakfast fires and damp stone that never really dries. Bundles of herbs hang along the courtyard edges, tied up and drying, sharp and green in the air. There’s iron too, faint but present, drifting in from the training yard where Varek’s men were sparring yesterday. I push myself up and look toward the walls.Varek’s already there.Of course he is. Walking the perimeter, eyes moving constantly, scanning beyond the walls like he exp

POV: DariusThe knock is formal. Three hits. Measured. Respectful.That is how I know it is council business before I even open the door.“Enter.”The door opens and it is not one of my guards but Kieran himself with another roof, not from my pack. It is a runner from the outer packs. Neutral colors. No scent ties. No fear in his eyes but no pride either.“He showed up this morning, said he had news,” Kieran says by way of explanation b3fie ege gesture for the wild to step forward He stops three steps in. Drops to one knee.“Alpha Darius,” he says. “I carry council notice.”“Stand,” I say.He does. He reaches into his jacket and pulls out a thick envelope. Black seal. Silver mark. Council crest pressed deep.He does not cross the room. He waits.“You can leave now, Kieran.”“What- but-”“I didn't stutter.”He stares at me in shock, like he can't believe I just told him, the beta, to get out.That is what you get for being a traitor.“Yes, Alpha,” he says with a nod before leaving, cl

POV: DARIUSThe world stops breathing the second I see her.Not slows.Not quiets.Stops.It is like someone hits pause on everything except me and her.The hall is packed.Alphas everywhere.Voices.Power.Heat.Ego.But it all drops away like it never mattered.The hall is buzzing, full of chatter and footsteps clipped like drumbeats, but the second I see her, it all falls away. Like someone dropped a stone in water. Everything else fades. I don’t hear the people, the talking, the orders. My ears strain, but it’s only her. Only her scent, her presence, filling the room like it’s swallowing me whole.My wolf presses forward, low, tense, crawling beneath my skin. It’s been trapped, waiting, and it’s finally found her.My wolf slams forward so hard it steals my breath.Not in rage.Not in hunger.He folds low inside me like he has been waiting his whole life for this exact second.There.Her.I don’t know her. I swear I don’t. My head is empty. No memory. No face attached to a name. No